This my stand in photo for this week.. I will come back to this weeks challenge at a later point.. sometimes you can look and look and still not find what it is you want for a certain word or idea in that time frame.
Lets talk about Jars.
I found two cases of Quarts and two cases of half-gallon dark Amber, (takes out 99 percent of UV light) and I bought them all.. I have looked at smaller jars at times but the costs where quite high.. as were these.. the quarts were sitting just over 3 each and the half gallons were pretty much 7 dollars each.
Now they are Ball jar, which means they are top of the line compared to many other cheaper jars and if they are looked after properly with care, they could outlast me 🙂 I know this because I have found and own jars that are older than I am and they are going strong!
Pressure canning is much harder on the jars overall compared to water bath canning, however not using a proper bottom on your water bath canner can weaken the bottom joint ring and cause them to let go.
When it comes to jars, I have the cheaper brands, but I have found them to have a much shorter “life” depending on the batch and what they are used for.. The Wal-Mart brand hold up well for juice, jams, jellies and for gift giving when you know the odds are you are not going to get those jars back..
However the higher quality jars are a better investment if you are going to be canning up meats and veggies, soups and stews.. I have some soup/stew work jars that are coming on their 15th year that hubby takes his lunches on.
Every time a jar breaks or chips, it’s a waste.. there is really no way to reuse a broken jar on the farm, I do not even like the idea of using it in the bottom of plant pots and so forth due to cutting possibility.. If you know of a homestead use for broken glass, I am all ears.
I have been watching the cost of rings going up and more up.. What are lids costing you this year? I hope you would be willing to take the time to let me know. I was shocked to see that 12 lids for regular mouth jars is 2.97 and 12 for wide mouth is 3.97 plus 13 percent tax on top of that at the till..
Once again, its cheaper to buy the box’s of 12 new lids/rings combo at the moment then it is to buy just new lids.. I found this last year.. its a glitch that I am sure will be closed soon enough.. I normally like to buy them by the case.
I decided to see if I could order them by the case online and so far no luck on finding a proper full case.. they are trying to sell them in sets of 12 boxes.. ah.. no.. a case is 48 box’s, thank you very much!
I have heard that at least in the states that they changed the rubber compound to the point that the jar’s lids have been failing at a higher then normal rate and that many of the homestead lady’s are ordering in though a few select sites.. I can dig out that stores name if need be.. but perhaps one of you will know?
We still have our Canadian brand and so far to date, while I do believe that the rubber IS thinner, I am not yet having any issues as long as I pre-heat my lids.. They “say” that we don’t need to do that and for pressure canning, I do not.. but even I had a couple lids fail on the same batch when I did it the way they said.. HA..
I went back to hot jars, hot lids and hot whatever when water bath canning and surprise (not) not a single lid gave after I went back to doing this.
So while I certainly am not recommending you boil your new lids, I will stand by the fact that putting a hot lid on does not hurt at all in the process.
Its a sad thing that at this point the replacement lids are going to start costing us canners more per jar then the jars will once their costs are spread out over the years. I do reuse canning lids in many ways, if I am putting a jar in the fridge or a storage jar or herb jar etc.
However I use a new lid for both canning and pressure canning always.. I know lots of folks that reuse lids and there are times where I know that I would risk it on lids I have taken off but hubby does not have that “touch” and crimps/dents the lid when he takes it off..
It does take a talent to release the pressure on that lid with it coming off clean.. Who in your family is the best lid remover?
Posted in Canning
Tagged Canning, Canning costs going up, cost of canning jars, Cost of replacement canning lids, jars
15 Comments
Friday Rambles Around the Table – Visitors on the Farm
Waves.. Dogs are on the deck, rain is coming so I am taking advantage this morning early to get a bit of garden work done. Come on in, I will wash up and put the kettle on for us.
O you want to have a little walk around, things are slowly melting out again since that last snow.. I know there are a few little things that are starting to grow and we are finally going to be able to plant out in the horse trough garden this weekend and work on the new garden paths for the front garden.
So yesterday in my email box came a letter from one of my official “provincial” livestock orgs and the whole thing was all about how to protect yourself from the animal rights and how to lock down your farm in many ways from the public.
This included signs, recommendation on wording and more..
I have to admit that I did a huh?
It seems to be it was not that long ago that everyone was talking about farm tours, about that as a small farmer and a connect with those who produce your eggs, your milk, your meat.. come to the farm.. pet the babies.. get your picture taken.
Now I have ALWAYS had an issue with this.. I can count on one hand the amount of my “friends” or those that visit the farm that are allowed to see everything and there is a dang good reason for this..
Its called Biosecurity and its real and its something that so many homesteaders, small farmers do not practise.. I am bad at it sometimes myself.. there are times where I let folks in the front yards without making them put on the booties. Where If I know that I have X rabbits in a clean hutch that I will take one out for a pet etc
The horse’s do go off the farm but they also get extra vaccines and they also have extra insurance for it as well. I used to have special travel insurance when I showed but now I have basic coverage for here on the farm. I have asked other people at times, what coverage do you have for when you have these “open days” and only two have ever answered me in detail.. the rest just get blank looks on their faces.
Strangely when you step out of the small livestock and into the horse world, this is the norm.. you need to show proof of vaccines, you need to show proof of insurance. You need to fill out and sign wavers when you arrive on the farms..
To be honest it should be the same way on the small homesteads, if you are really going to allow folks to stick fingers though fences or worst yet, going to allow people in with the different critters, example goat yoga or walking with the alpaca, then I would hope that everyone had to sign a waiver.. I don’t think many do but they should!
I had someone “petting” a friendly sheep, my focus was elsewhere and if I had not seen him back up and then move into again for “another pet” I would have missed it, I was just lucky that he was giving warning.
That ram was warning that person that he was getting ready to charge and because of lack of knowledge, the person though that the slow movement, care being shown was an invite to be friendly.. it was a interspecies miscommunication.
I know I shocked the person when I went over and reacted in a “BIG WAY” and drove the ram out and back.. but it truly could have all gone VERY Wrong.. I had a fellow sheep farmer who was hit by her ram and he broke her back. It was an eye opener to say the least, I had allowed myself to get to comfortable with the folks visiting as they come to the farm every year.
It was not their fault, it was not the ram’s fault.. it was mine.. as the farmer, I should know better than to put people and livestock together without full-time care and explaining going on between them.
I have been kicked, bite, rolled and stomped over my life time and pretty much everyone I know that works day in and day out with livestock has stories and war wounds to show..
The rooster that decided that purple was the color to trigger an attack.. the gander that thought you might have looked in the direction of his gal, the ram who has ewe’s in heat, the mare that is heat and who is a total sweetheart most of the time who will kick you if you look at her wrong on the “heat day”, the pig that has been a sweetheart always who snaps when a baby cries wrong.. and her hormones kick in..
However I do my best to keep certain lines that do not get crossed on the farm.. area’s that have the youngest is one area that I try very hard to keep totally only us, or a vet if needed but trust me, he is boot dipping and or wearing the blue booties.
Certain times over the past years, I have totally locked down the farm when certain bio threats are happening and are so easy to spread. Tires can and do bring things in.. boots, gloves and more.
But this was all about image, this was about the fact that we need to present the white picket fence image.
Strangely despite everything I said above, I don’t agree with the white picket or the hiding behind fences or locking in buildings without windows. Its spring here on the farm and I know that there is a mud on knees, there are wet feet that I am watching, there is a big shit pile in the one corner of the pasture where the horse’s dozed in the sun for months..
There is muck and mud and piles of bedding hauled out of the barns.. is it pretty.. no, it’s not.. but its real..
We need more care yes, and we need animal welfare yes, but we also need more real!
There is nothing wrong with real, you know!
Not all babies are perfect..
Not everyone is healthy all the time.. are we.. I mean really think about it.. why is there this image that every single animal on the farm must be this glowing picture of health..
If I asked you if everyone in your family was the picture of health all year-long, what is the odds.. someone had colds right? someone needed some kind of tooth care? What about nail care, some got a sliver? Or some slipped? Did someone hit their toes and break it? What about someone who gained weight over the winter or lost weight because they are nursing a baby and running after a toddler?
Or what about your house hold pet.. cats that need help with bite that got infected, or a dog that eat the wrong thing and is throwing up or a split paw or a pulled nail.. we all know that if own pets that there are times we need help, that we take them to the vets.
SO why the heck have we allowed ourselves to fall into the trap that a full-time milking animal be it cow, goat or sheep is to look the same as a dry animal.. they don’t.. they are in full production.. they have a hippy look to them.. it’s not wrong.. it’s just not the same as a unbred animal would look…
Does a mother of four who is in her mid 30’s look the same as a 20-year-old in their prime with no children.. no.. and yet we expect the older females of our flocks and herds to look the same.
I have even had people say.. what is wrong with that chicken! Is it unhealthy, does it need a vet, o my god.. put a sweater on it.. yes I swear, someone say the sweaters on facebook and told me to put a sweater on my chicken.. Sigh!
Its called moulting.. all birds that live longer then a year do it and they do it every single year! Instead of going, did a fox attack chickens due to the feather explosion in the yard.. or going.. that chicken must be cold..
Maybe we could have a chat about the fact that small farm, homesteads and so forth are the fragile keeping grounds of the rare breeds, the heritage breeds and that the best way to save them is to breed them and eat them.
That sometimes we should take pictures of birds in moult and share them on our social media instead of only sharing the perfect photos of the full fluffy butts.. I mean I love a feather fluffy butt the same as the next chicken loving gal.. but I swear I am going to put up birds with missing feathers and moulting chickens this year.
Then yesterday on the radio came a hour long program by a ag lawyer talking about how farms are getting swarmed.. they will have numbers of people arrive in protest and refuse to leave and often take animals when they do so, without the farmers permission.. they simply overwhelm the farmer. .. that they have started having to send out alerts to farmers that activsests are planning and talking on the net.
In this case they were focused on dairy and they would steal the calves and then post photo’s of them afterwards. Its my understanding that this also happened with piglets as well.
A friend of mine in alberta had her dog taken and re-sold (or so it appears) from her ranch yard.. I feel so badly for her, it seems like every year all over the place, dogs are taken for re-sale (if they are lucky) and for fighting rings if they are not lucky enough to be rehomed.
Whole litters taken from backyards, someone tried once to steal my Freyja and they would have gotten my mom’s much more friendly house dogs if my farm girl had not let loose in barks and ran away.. stranger should not touch.. I yelled from the window and then left as I went storming out. That same day they took X amount of dogs from the town.. we were just lucky, it was totally random.
However my friend had shared on social media that she was traveling, and I know that while it “could have been ” random, I can’t help but wonder if her farm got targeted due to there being a farm sitter in place. As far as I know at the moment, they still do not know where they much loved dog is.. my heart breaks for them..
I would be so upset if someone came and stole my lambs right out of my barn.. Camera’s have come a long! long way. Tiny little battery camera’s will get the job done. Get one that shows your lane, one that shows your barn and more.. and put up the signs.. Smile, you are on camera!
So in a nutshell..
Stop having open house farm days, they are being targeted
Follow proper and safe Biosecurity on your farm when you do have people come visit.. they come to visit in the house.. beware and speak strongly to those that they can just wonder around looking at things.
Show real life as well as the pretty on your social media, we need more REAL
Put up camera’s and use them on your farms
Lock things up.. I know its a pain to do so.. but put things under lock and key goes a long way to help makes sure things stay safe. As does chaining things up. I know they can be cut.. but it sure slows folks down at the least!
Don’t tell people if you are going to be away or if you have a farm sitter stopping by, write about your great time after you get home. I do it all the time, folks think its happening in the moment.. but its after I am home..
If they are going to be living on the farm full time that’s a little different but make sure that is shared in such a way as folks understand that.
Its a new world we live in folks.. and its a tricky one to find balance in.
Stay safe out there.. and keep your livestock just as safe!
Posted in At the kitchen table
12 Comments
Farmgal’s Photography April 11th 2019
The Canadian Geese have been coming to the fields behind the farm by the hundreds for days now..
We have three deer that have been cross over the farm and feeding around the farm in the local fields. It appears to be a big doe with two yearlings.
There little trouble makers have broke out of the fence one to many time and are now in lock down after I caught them up by the bean teepee.. sneaky girls.. very sneaky!
The big river is staring to break up now.. the local creek is overflowing its banks and there are local roads closed off other then local traffic and only if you can get to your place before you can’t! Its not effected us, despite the higher levels, it has not gotten even to close to the pasture fields before it started to retreat
However down the road, its been much worse.. this is not a lake.. this is hundreds of acres of fields.. hopefully it will start to drain soon.
Posted in photography
Tagged Canadian Homestead Photography, Farmgal's Photography, Photography nature
10 Comments
The Baby Fowl April Update 2019
The call was placed to the feed store and the Chicks and Turkey Pullets are now ordered and will arrive on the farm the first week of May.
We ordered in 12 dual purpose large brown egg layers. I love so many thinks that my Icelandic J line land race rooster has added into the main mixed breed flock but the reduction of egg size is the one thing I need to correct in the coming gens. These are sex linked and are all hens.
He reduced egg size from a large to a med in weight on most of his offspring and then I had a weasel attack late winter and sadly lost four of my bigger brown egg layers. I had five years ago added in a some green egg layers but while they were stunning, great temperaments, they did not really lay well.. .. no let me change that.. they really did not lay well.. they were from show lines and produced 3 to 4 eggs a week.
However breed down to the Icelandic line, I was able to increase the laying rates back up to normal rates but the Icelandic helped bring down the egg size.. giving up one thing for another.. I would take regular steady layers that really produce well even if It means I lost some size..
Now that I have the colors I want added in, the smaller combs and that great forage built-in, I want to use the coming laying hens to be to bring in the genes to bring back up the size on the eggs in the next generations.
I ordered in 50 white rock meat birds. I had only planned on 40 of them but it cost me 4 dollars less if I ordered 50 then if I ordered in 40.. as the price really went down at the 50 mark.. so be it.
While I have raised chicks for many years now, I have never raised white rock’s.. I have also gone with the slower growth rates of the heavy dual breed chickens.. but this year, the simple fact is that I had to take a very hard look at the growth rates, the return rates and the feed costs.
I heard from a friend who raises her birds very much like I do and she said they did them last year for the first time and had very good luck with them. I am hoping I will find the same thing. We will see how it goes and if it saves us money in the long run. They are mixed run unsexed.
It will have to really prove themselves because if I was not buying them, I would be hatching my own chicks, so right off the top, we have earn back the money that it took to buy these chicks from the hatchery.
While I will run the chicks as a group of 50 at the start, as soon as I can, I will be splitting out the bigger chicks (males I assume) into their own group of ideally around 25 and keeping the smaller (female’s I assume ) into their own group. I have heard they can be quite lazy and I want to make sure that the bigger are not pushing the smaller off the feeder or water or prime shade etc.
I also ordered in 10 turkey pullets, I had planned on buying the smaller white but again it turns out that you have to pay extra to get the mini-classic so I went with the more cost-friendly choice and got the great big White Broad Breasted Turkeys. These are mixed run and unsexed so we will get a mix of smaller females and bigger males.
I am very hopeful that my female turkey will be laying an trying to sit eggs and I will be encouraging her to do so at the right time and I will be able to slip the pullets under her and that she will raise them for me.. It will make things so much easier if I can make this happen..
The plan at the moment is to butcher at smaller sizes for at least some of them, I have no need for 50 pound turkeys, well other then one or two for when I hope to have some family come a nice meal around thanksgiving etc.
I still plan to do all the ducks inhouse as they say.. all my own eggs, my own hatching or the hen hatching and raising them for our own use. I am still wanting ideally a min of 48 ducks but more would be better.
I am excited to see the plans come together here on the farm.
How about you? Have you got eggs in your incubator? Do you have chicks ordered? Do you live in ones those places that brings in chicks of all kinds to the feed stores and you can just go and pick what you want? Do you get your chicks delivered by mail?
Is feed costs effecting your own plans for what you are choosing to raise this year?
So unless something else changes, that is the April update for you, somehow.. somehow I made it though spring and did not make it to a single spring bird sale! O my gosh.. you have no idea how hard it was to not go to a sale lol..
I adore my spring bird sales! So SO much.. but I stayed with the plan! I am working the plan..
Posted in Chickens
Tagged Chicken, Ducks, raising your own fowl, Spring time chick orders, turkeys
16 Comments
Sheep Milk Yogurt
I love making my homemade yogurt in my Shuttle Chef because it allows me to make it with very limited heat used. Just heat the milk to the correct temp, hold it for a few minutes, bring it back down a touch and add the culture and into the chef it goes for six hours and out comes a pot of thick yogurt.
I love being able to lift big thick spoons of this out to be used, you can add some fruit, nuts or jam or jelly and stir it in to change up your flavours.
But don’t stop there.. its easy to put in a linen based Reusable cheese cloth (please consider investing in a reusable in this regards) and strain out more and voila.. it pretty close to being cream cheese. Sheep milk is so rich and full bodies that it can do this with ease.
In this case after I drained it, I did a mix of nettle/pink Salt and have made it into a nice log to chill in the fridge till I bring it out for future meal. If you have never used dried nettle in soft cheese, I highly recommend you give it a try. At our local farmers market they sell a old aged nettle cheese that is very good. Its nice to see nettle cheese being sold in such a public way 🙂
I am down to my last pint jar of dried nettles, I still have nettle blends in the cupboard but I am so glad that soon, very soon those baby nettles will be popping out of the ground.. Come on spring!
What is your favorite herb blend to mix into your cream cheese or drained yogurts to use in your own kitchen? Are you running low on anything in your herb cupboard?
Climate Change and Waking up to soon
Yesterday which was the end of a run day of five days of above 0 temps in the day time and below freezing in the night (perfect weather for the sap run) hubby called me..
Three of this furry fat big boy (it would appear “thank you sandy” that these are most likely Osmia Lignaria ) had hatched out with very poor timing indeed given that it was a bad freezing raining day.. We scooped them up and I snapped a few photos and then we moved them to a close by but sheltered area and let nature take over from there..
I truly hope that there are more males to hatch yet from that area for breeding.. and I had better get a new house out for them this weekend.
Where they came from is not a great location but I am also not surprised to be honest.. I will give the females that will come sooner than later a better choice or three close by where they were and will redo that area to highly encourage them to move to the older tree stumps and older logs that I am going to offer them.
We were driving the other day and I said to hubby.. stop the car, we need to go back I spotted something in the ditch I want.. there was an old root/stump section just waiting to be picked up and hauled home. This one is not for drilling holes.. there are others that will have that, instead this one is for the carpenter. We have a lack of older wood at this point.
Lots of fresh cut wood but we will need to haul in and place our older stump parts and logs to give these wonderful pollinators a number of choices (besides my house/deck/barns) a place to set up their homes in.
I had so many bees that used the big old willow tree’s as their homes that I know they must have taken anything they could get their hands on last fall to make the winter though.. No real harm done.. but I can’t allow them to stay there all the time.. after all that is point in fact my deck and I have plans to finish the parts that were not done last time and it’s getting a new paint job as well as new climbers and such.
I am not sure that these guys will have made it.. not only did it freezing rain all day but then the snow arrived and the world is a cover of white over the weight of the ice, I am going to lose at least a two younger trees, I do not think they will be able to come back and I will not be able to leave them leaning like that..
There is a clear lack of feeding things out there at the moment.. The area that they hatched from for many years here on the farm would have had a much slower spring wake up but is this year a full sun area now.
This is part of the reason why I think its going to become so very important that we are food producers take it on ourselves to learn how to work with, help and care for the single native bees that produce coons that can be harvested and kept in controlled conditions over winter.
While I fully intend to continue to support my “wild” native bees in so many ways, I have come to the understanding that we are coming up or we have hit the point where we are going to have to step up our game to make sure we have the pollinators we need in our gardens all season long.
Honeybees are awesome and if you want to go that route.. wonderful.. most folks in the city’s and towns do not have this choice. Even those of us that do want honeybees can be put off by the cost investment into them.. Bees are not cheap at all and the overwinter loss’ can be hard on both new and older beekeepers.
The Native above ground bees on the other hand can be looked at as a way to hedge our bets for those wanting and willing to work with nature. I give a total nod of respect to those that want pretty flowers and pollinator gardens.. bless you..
Having said that, I am focused on working a program that supports the bees with the intent to increase pollination to increase food crop yields! Thankfully while there is a learning curve, the investment in terms of money itself can be very little if you are willing to do some of the work yourself.
I will be showing frugal ways to do this as well as showing ways to spend a little money or to be honest spend a bit larger amount for a higher return. I want to share all the different points and spread.
In general on Tuesday’s (and perhaps other days as well) I will be sharing a pollinator related post.. This can be on anything in this wide subject matter, from plants to bushes to houses to detailed reports on the viewing house I got.
As I watch the almost white out conditions in my winter wonderland, I can only sigh at the fate of these guys that came out yesterday.. To soon.. To soon! I hope you went back into your tunnels and are pouting guys!
So dear readers.. talk to me.. do you have a good amount of native bees in your gardens and or your homesteads? Have you noticed a increase or a decrease? I know that over the past couple years in many area and places, there have been reports of losses and to quiet gardens.. yet a few other folks reported to me that they are good and have lots!
What I am really looking for is, what was it like last year? Did you have lots of native bees and if so, lots though the whole season? or did you see weather and timing effecting their numbers?
I know here on the farm in 2018
Spring : very slow start.. lack of bees.. thankfully we did have a dozen plus Early Mason bees that got really busy in the spring so while we did not count many bees, we still got a good pollination count.
Late Spring: We had a second native bee appear that they feed on our caned fruits flowers in massive numbers and they did a outstanding job, we have lovely yields in this regards but despite that, we were down our at least 60 percent over our normal numbers.
Summer: mixed bag, we had our first hatching of at least three of our different native’s which was great but their numbers were lean and then the heat did a number on them.
Fall: then we had the massive yard shake up, we sadly know that we cut down and displaced at least five nests or breeding nests.. and we saw that reflected in our fall bees numbers.. this the time of the year where I normally see my asters, golden rod and my joe-pye weed crawling with last minute feeders.
I would say we headed into the fall of 2018 with at least 60 percent of my normal amount missing.. We will see what 2019 brings us.
Dogwood 52- Showing loneliness
This was a challenge for me and I am not sure on this one.. I took a lot of photos trying to capture this in a different ways.. I am going with this one at the moment.. but I might change it out at a later point in the year.. I will put this one as the runner up.. Our spring come though of the Turkey Vultures happened this week.
Posted in photography
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Gal in the Garden April Walk About
Hello Folks..
Ready to see my snowy, messy.. what the heck happened last year to my gardens, walk about.. I could not even get into my main garden yet.. so you will get those first photos in may..
So here it is.. in the raw.. there is a part of me that really does not want to show you these photos.. I want to wait till they have been cleaned up, till I have pretty plants started or pops of color.. Anything really beyond showing this April spring muck and mud..
However I want to do a walk about photo series all season long on the same date each month.. maybe even weekly or bi-weekly in the real push garden season to show just how much of a change it goes though.
So for all you neat gardeners.. look away.. look away now LOL
This is the gate garden, it has the climbers and then a three foot bed around it.. plus in the back left you can see the tower garden area.
This area is the bale garden, compost pile mound gardens and if you want to look closer, you can see the new line of big cedar fence posts that went in last year and will be newly fenced this year.. I have tree’s that need to come down this year..
I know, you can’t even see things here yet but on the far left is the sunchokes patch, in the middle is two big three foot garden rows, at the back is black choke berry and more fruiting interplanting planned in there this year and that post.. it will play host to a mason bee house, facing the sun.
This is Bean Teepee #1 as more are planned this spring, along with Sofie kitty and Leeloo kitty who had to come on my walk with me.. It needs a good clean up and the 3 foot bed around it as well. It at least is melting out faster then other areas
While its starting to thin out in places in the drifted area’s the snow is still knee deep, so I will take more detailed photos in there in may for you.. but there is the garden beds, the hedge rows and much more back there.. Right now.. lets to put it as its big, its got lots of things being planted in there and its still very much pretty much under snow cover yet.
This is the view into the big new rebuild area of the front yard, it does not show the side part.. but I will get that in may, as I will with the other back gardens, including the gooseberry’s and the raspberry etc.
This one is a shot from the middle of the rebuild area showing a more direct line to the pond to be and beyond hat a rain garden to be.. plus the “big tree” where we will add in the picnic table for shade in the yard in the afternoon.
This is my poor cleared front yard area and now that I have figured out what will happen with it, I am so excited.. this area will become my kitchen garden with a intermix of flowers and walk away.. Its going to be both pretty and ever so useful!
This is the front bed, while it needs a spring clean, it is in fact filled with a great number of come back plants but there is plans on expanding it this year as well.. more on that soon.. I have had it with mowing that little patch.. time to turn it into garden space.. or at least herb growing space.
Well that is what you are getting for April.. I will expand in may once I can freely walk into the areas.. Hope you enjoyed seeing my crazy yard/gardens lol
Posted in Garden, Life moves on daily
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Friday Rambles Around the Table – Melting..
Hi, its so nice out there at the moment, come on in.. I know its so mild.. and plus 6 today and not so much wind.. that wind has been crazy for the last bit. I know they are calling for snow tonight but so far they have not changed their mind that we are to get plus 11 and plus 13 on the weekend.
I sure hope they are right because if so, I am planning a on doing on farm work, both in the garden area, the barns but mainly in regards to getting some butchering done.. the weather and cold only held me off for a full month on that plan. But you have to be able to feel your fingers while working lol
Coffee? Tea? A hot bowl of soup? I have a big old pot on the stove, it will be even better at supper time but its ready now.. Can slice up some bread to go with?
Got my onions sets in.. I don’t have a enough green bunching onions there yet but can pick up a couple more bags easy enough at the store and put them in the cool/dark pantry to hold them till I want to use them.
Hubby and I walked over the deck area from where you can and had a chat and agreed that I could turn it into a kitchen garden. I am quite excited about it. I will have to grow up a number of wild plants in that area so I can transfer them to a different spot, as I want to save them.. its been one of my area’s that I tend have a lot of wild violets and plantain for harvest and I want to save those genetics here on the farm.
Still it will be such a nice thing to be able to walk off the deck and gather things for the garden, I did worry a touch about the fact that it will not be “pretty” when you walk up the sidewalk but I can throw in some flowers and really if you are coming to the farm, surely you understand that I going to have a working garden lol. Right?
Sweetie the new milking sheep ewe is just wonderful.. she is increasing her milk flow daily plus feeding her lamb full time yet. I am getting a 3 pints a day at this point.. she will come up to her average top late next week or early the week after. I expect she will be come at a liter a milking plus the lamb.
While I know that in her line, she can reach a gallon a day but as a first time girl and given she is young yet, I want her to reach her point naturally and I do not intend to pull the lamb from her till its 30 days and then we will do a share milking for another 30 days..
I am limiting what I will bring in the house doing this but I am good with it.. I certainly do not feel like I am short of milk in the house now as those beautiful jars fill up twice a day and are chilled in the fridge.
I do miss being able to use my rapid chill feature. I love it and normally do so when I am chilling out my milk but its not a good idea at the moment as I am also storing my mason bee’s in the same fridge and so I have to find a balance. I put the milk at the back in the coldest part of the fridge and I use pint jars to help drop the temp faster, and I keep the bee cooler more towards the front of the fridge. So far so good.
There is spots of green and spots of soil starting to show here and there.. the rings around the tree’s are growing.. the water is moving under that snow pack and there are so many more birds in the yard.. they are eating me out of house and home (kidding) at the bird feeders.
The spring moving birds are thrilled with it and instead of being filled once a week, its barely lasting three days between fills. The geese have gone over a bit but yesterday.. they arrived! Hundreds of them came last night to bed down and feed in the back fields behind the farm. Most of that is flooded so they have water to swim, bath and the rest is slowly melting out so they can also look for bits of feed at the same time.
When I went out to do morning chores, they were talking.. they are so loud.. I have had my own geese out and enjoying them in the yard at least until I was attacked twice.. they are feeling spring as well.. so they are moved into their own pen off the pasture to keep them out and enjoying the fine weather.
Got my chicks, and turkey pullets ordered, they arrive first week of may, 12 big dual purpose dark brown egg layers, 50 meat birds.. I had planned on 30, then decided that I would go with 40 and then the gentleman at the store said. I can sell you 50 instead of 40 chicks and save you four dollars.. The price drop is that huge once you hit 50.. crazy but so be it.. and 10 Big white Meat turkey pullets.
They will be six weeks old for when we head out on our Holiday and so they will be past the trying stage for our farm sitter.. however if everything works out we will be butchering the meat chicks in the first two weeks of July before the real hard heat hits the farm.
I don’t plan on doing the turkey’s till fall but we will see how big they get and that might change.. I am still sad that I lost my big brown layers in the last weasel attack.. I didn’t need as many as I ordered but if there is one thing that will sell.. its nice big brown eggs at the farm gate 🙂
I look forward to setting and hatching ducklings.. and then seeing what the mother hens produce on their own nests. I have done my research and plan to use the ducks to help “seal” the pond. I expect they are going to be so excited to have a pond to swim on and in this year.
I am waiting for notice that the rolls of sheep fencing I have ordered have arrived at the store and waiting to be picked up.. I got a great one day sale at a hundred off per role.. as I needed four of them. That is a big chunk of savings for sure! I can use that 400 in a different way on the farm.. like a new big water tank to help increase our water saving ability.
Well, I am late getting this finished up and must run as I need to get ready for my online training class in regards to my training on becoming a Master Rain Garden Designer. Have a great day!
Just another Day on the Farm 